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The Supreme Court Rules on DNA Collection

This is still America, right? We still have a Constitution and a Bill of Rights, correct? Lately, it sure doesn’t seem like it. It seems like we are constantly hearing new stories of our rights being under attack here in America. This week, it’s the Fourth Amendment which is being systematically destroyed.

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects American citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures. To any reasonable person, this would include the collection of DNA samples. Unfortunately, it would seem that our Supreme Court does not have reasonable people in the majority. Yesterday, they ruled that the police can collect DNA from suspects who have been arrested. Not convicted, just arrested.

The argument was that these DNA tests can help to solve previously existing cases. While this may be true, what about innocent people who now have their DNA in the system? There doesn’t have to be suspicion of guilt in another crime (or proven guilty in the crime for which the person was arrested), the DNA can be collected and stored. Just in case.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority’s 5-4 decision, saying that "Taking and analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee's DNA is, like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment."

Justice Antonin Scalia saw it differently, and wrote the dissent, true to his reputation for colorful opinions. He said

"Make no mistake about it: because of today's decision, your DNA can be taken and entered into a national database if you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason. This will solve some extra crimes, to be sure. But so would taking your DNA whenever you fly on an airplane."

He went on to say that our founding fathers would never have stood for this,

"The proud men who wrote the charter of our liberties would not have been so eager to open their mouths for royal inspection."

They created the Bill of Rights to avoid just such overreaches.

If someone is wrongly arrested, their DNA will still be in a national database. Forever. Is this something that we are supposed to accept in America? Are we to approve of this as the new normal? Wherefore art thou, civil liberties?

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Ten years ago today, the United States Supreme Court fundamentally changed the meaning and purpose of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, which allows for the use of eminent domain for “public use,” such as a road. But in a 5 to 4 decision, the Court ruled that eminent domain could be used to take property from a private citizen for purposes other than a public use.

Many Americans are eagerly (and nervously) awaiting the King v. Burwell decision, which is expected to come at the end of the month. The court case will determine whether ObamaCare, which looks to be falling apart independently of legal intervention, is illegally providing subsidies to those enrolled in the exchange.

Civil asset forfeiture is a unique area of law in which the government charges specific property of being guilty of wrongdoing, rather than a person. Perhaps because the property is accused of wrongdoing, and not the person, governments often place lower standards of proof needed to forfeit the property. The procedures used by the federal government and many state governments creates grave Fourth and Fifth Amendment concerns.

After sometimes-dramatic and often-tense several weeks, the USA Freedom Act finally passed the Senate. The act’s passage brings the government’s telephone data surveillance program under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act back from its brief retirement, but with reforms that stop its worst abuses. Although the USA Freedom Act was certainly not the level of reform that many had hoped for, it passage nevertheless sent a clear signal that the days of Congress simply rubber-stamping endless surveillance programs are over.

As one of our more than 6.9 million FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to support the End Warrantless Surveillance of Americans Act, H.R. 2233. Introduced by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and Thomas Massie (R-KY), this bill would take huge strides towards curtailing the government’s ability to access to Americans’ electronic communications without a warrant.

Cory Maye, a loving father of an 18 month old daughter at the time, was sleeping in his living room the day after Christmas at 12:30 a.m. when he heard banging at the door. He had no prior record, but lived in a rough neighborhood, where break-ins had taken place before, so he grabbed his pistol and ran to the back bedroom to defend his daughter.

Jeb Bush continues to defend the National Security Agency's unconstitutional domestic spying program, telling a conservative talk show host that this gross encroachment on the Fourth Amendment is the "best part of the Obama administration."

The steps the administration had taken to rein abuse of civil asset forfeiture were undermined on Wednesday when President Barack Obama signed an executive order that ignores Fifth Amendment protections for due process, authorizing the seizure of property from those who are merely suspected of cyber-crime.

There's no indication that the National Security Agency's unconstitutional domestic spying efforts have thwarted an actual terrorist plot inside the United States. In January 2014, the New America Foundation released a report on the 225 individuals investigated for terrorism in which it explained that the so-called "all calls" surveillance program "had no discernible impact on preventing acts of terrorism."